02-2018 A.D.M. V. SOLOMON

State: Florida

Court: Florida Third District Court

Docket No: 02-2018 A.D.M. V. SOLOMON

Case Date: 11/27/2002

Preview:NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING MOTION AND, IF FILED, DISPOSED OF. IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF FLORIDA THIRD DISTRICT JULY TERM, A.D. 2002

A.D.M. PRODUCTIONS, INC., etc., Appellant,

** ** CASE NO. 3D02-2018 **

vs. ** DAVID SOLOMON, Appellee. ** ** LOWER TRIBUNAL CASE NO[S]. 02-8722

Opinion filed November 27, 2002. An Appeal of a non-final order from the Circuit Court of Miami-Dade County, Ronald M. Friedman, Judge. McClosky, D'Anna, Ioannou & Dieterle and Gordon A. Dieterle and David J. Pascuzzi (Boca Raton), for appellant. Jennifer M. Gillihan, for appellee. Before COPE, FLETCHER, and SHEVIN, JJ. FLETCHER, Judge. A.D.M. Productions, Inc. [ADM] seeks the reversal of a trial court order which denies ADM's forum non conveniens motion to dismiss.1 We reverse and remand for the purposes of the trial

1

ADM contends that New York is the proper forum.

court's

conducting an analysis as required by Kinney System,

Inc. v. Continental Ins. Co., 674 So. 2d 86 (Fla. 1996), and providing a written order which sets forth the court's findings of fact supporting its conclusion. From the record we have

before us it appears that the trial court denied ADM's motion to dismiss for inconvenient forum solely on the basis that there are to be, or may be, witnesses who reside in Florida. The

trial court stated, apparently as a matter of policy [App.53]: "The Court: As long as here, I keep it here." I have witnesses

Such a policy eviscerates Kinney by making the plaintiff's witness list conclusive as to the forum. witnesses," having local part of a witnesses "Adequate access to

Kinney analysis, does not mean that on the plaintiff's witness list

automatically defeats an inconvenient forum motion to dismiss. The trial court must evaluate the relevancy and materiality of the potential testimony that a listed witness may bring to the issues. In the instant case, from the record, we know little or nothing about what evidence is proposed to be elicited from Solomon's listed witnesses. Accordingly, we remand the cause to

the trial court to perform a Kinney analysis, and to provide us

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with its findings in support of its conclusion to grant or deny the motion. Reversed and remanded.

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